My honest, no BS, opinion of P.A.M.

Rtoedt thanks for the info... Let me ask u a question u mention that u r curently working for a different company now and u completed ur 1yr. But went $4k in debt.. Why? Did u have to pay P.A.M back?

 

Rtoedt do you know how EGears works? My recruiter is telling me that the program is free... But nothing is free in this world! I see that u get a free trial for 45 days but then again I don't see anything in how to cancel the service... Maybe u can help me with this since u recently took training class with C1.. Thanks

 

Ok, I need to explain more here. I didn't go into debt with PAM. I had to take a loan, from my neighbor, for $2000 to go to the class and do my training with PAM to pay my bills for that period of time. PAM only pays you $300 a week while training with a trainer. You have to eat on the road too. Its is anywhere from $15 to $25 a day on the road, say $100 a week just to eat. So, $300 a week is not going to help a whole lot when you have a car, home, and whatever else payments that you may have to make. They will repo that stuff if you don't pay them first.

Next, I was off work about 2 weeks in December because freight is slow and the economy was also extra bad then. You won't get paid while your home. So I took another $2000 out to get one month ahead on my bills cause I foresaw that there was a big problem. I spent a lot of days out on the road, getting their whopping $40 per day layover pays in January and February. Then the truck brakes down pretty frequently, at least once a month, so you gotta sit at their shops for 4-12 days at a time getting a whopping $60 per day for it. You don't get paid for orientation, they also tend to keep you unloaded for up to 20 hours at a time a lot of times because you won't get that $40 or $60 until you reach 24 hours. You will lose a lot of pay because of it too. You won't get detention pay at shippers and recievers, even if you spend many hours waiting to get loaded or unloaded. Basically, if you aren't driving, you aren't making any money. They don't make any money if their trucks ain't moving either. That translates into that they just don't have loads to keep you moving, depending on where your at, how many other drivers are in the same area, and how much freight there is in that area.

I didn't owe them any money though when I finished because I did my one year with them. My cost of living was higher than what I was making at the job. It is best to be safe and say you will get at worst $25k take home for the year and go with that. A lot of people quit this because when the get into it they think they are gonna make a good income because they lie to you at the recruiters. The recruter I had told me that the companys help pay for on the road expenses. That is a bunch of bull too. You do get to write of some of it on taxes, but it still comes out of your own pocket.

Hope this helps.

Peace

 

I have never heard about EGears so I can't answer that one. Its true though that nothing is free in this world, unless maybe you were born into a rich family or something.

Read the fine print on what they give you. Nothing in this world is totally secure so be careful.

Please read the above reply that I made, maybe this will help you.

PEACE!

 

I've been using EGears to study for my CDLs and I paid $9.99 for a 30 day subscription.

 

I'm headed to C1 in North Little Rock, Arkansas on January 11th. I've done as much research as I possibly can and I've weighed the pros & cons of several trucking companies. Bottom line is, I want my CDLs and I'm not expecting to get rich driving for PAM, but it's a start. Wish me luck!

 

Good Luck.....

 

This guy sounds like another driver/recruiter ...

I started with PAM, got on dedicated early and finished the year - so I'm not going to bash them ... There were some descent people working in the home terminal.

I know the 400 lb arrogant driver trainer DM mentioned - and a lot of trainers left because of his attitude.

Though it's hard to imagine PAM entry level drivers in double bottoms - and triples??? ... seriously doubt it ... at least I pray it isn't so ...

 

After a couple of days of sleeping on it, I decided to forgo C1 and go to Central Refrigerated school in Conley, GA instead.

 

They have an ad in jax fl paper. A driver asked me about them. I know they aren't the best, but are they more or less stable. Really want to hear from current drivers, like if fuel cards and paychecks are still good. Thanks

Thanks for moving this..staff or mod.